Garage Improvements 2000

What's New For Your Mustang Working Environment

We all clamor for more space. While it would be nice to have that heated (or air-conditioned) four-car workshop behind the house, for most of us, our Mustang restoration and repair environment encompasses a small corner of the family two-car garage. On the weekends, when you should be enjoying your Mustang hobby, you end up shifting around other household jobs, bicycles, lawn equipment, and more just to get some room to rebuild those brakes, or recover a seat. Part of this problem is tool storage and workbench size. We all want more countertop space for our work areas, but those large counters get in the way when we are finished with them. The same goes for tool storage. Those huge toolboxes look impressive, but storing tools in other ways will help alleviate your space problems.

What we intend to do with this article is get you to think about your working environment, and what you can do to make your little bit of heaven more useful. We also will be showing you the newest tools and workbench systems, as well as offering up a refresher course on tool and shop safety. So on with the show.

First things first: Tool and Equipment SafetyTool and equipment safety and proper usage go hand in hand. Choosing the proper tool is just as important as correctly using it. Buying inferior tools or using a tool for other than its intended purpose is just asking for problems. If you follow these basic guidelines, you won't have any problems. Protect yourself by thinking-that's right, think first.

When breaking a bolt free, use an open hand and push away from you (if possible). This accomplishes two things. First, if the wrench or ratchet slips, then your open palm can much more easily take a blow against a hard object than your knuckles. Second, pushing away from you will prevent you from flying back away from the workbench or car.

When it comes to prying or scraping, use the correct tool. A screwdriver is just that, a tool that drives a screw in or out. Don't use a screwdriver to pry two items apart or to scrape a gasket surface.

When using chisels, make sure the proper-type chisel is used, and don't let the end mushroom too much. Dress the end of the chisel on a grinder to remove the excess mushroomed metal.

When using a grinder, always have the wheel guards in place and a suitable work light shining on your part. Having a sliver of metal in your eyes is no picnic, as it has happened to me.

When grinding small items, make sure they are secured by locking pliers. The pliers will prevent the bolt, bracket, or clip from becoming airborne and possibly being embedded in your forehead.

This might sound like common sense, but don't use broken tools. We all have that ratchet that doesn't lock or the chrome socket with worn points or a small split down the side. Replace those tools now. A $12 socket is less expensive than an emergency room visit.

People have a tendency to use a test light by holding the wire in their hands or over their fingertips, and then probing with the sharp test light tip. This usually leads to the sight of blood and excruciating pain in the aforementioned fingers or hands. Instead, use a small piece of wood or plastic (something that won't conduct electricity) to place behind the wire you are inspecting.

Cool ToolsSome modern advancements in tool design have created some new tools that are easy to hold, more efficient, and make your repair work easier. Here is a quick sampling of new tools from our favorite tool retailer, the Sears Craftsman line.

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Workbench Wonders(with technical text assistance by Joe Adams)We've all seen the haphazard work areas in our friends' garages: a couple bolt-together metal shelving systems and maybe an old door propped across the tops of the shelves, or perhaps a stationary workbench that's so large and heavy you have to back the car out of the garage to get in front of it. These are not our ideas of efficient workspace and tool storage systems. When it comes to having the utmost in workspace-area efficiency, the first name that comes up is Joe Adams and his Adamstand workbenches. The Adamstand workbenches are adaptable to almost any project that can be addressed. The Adamstand is, for lack of a better analogy, a big erector set designed to allow you to rotate work-holding fixtures and work surfaces like one would rotate from one socket to the next on a ratchet.

The Adamstand is available in several configurations and options levels. The Pro II is the home workshop model line, and the Pro I-used by several race teams including "Big Daddy" Don Garlits-is the professional line and can hold complete engines and transmissions with the correct adapters. We asked Joe Adams to design a revolutionary workshop environment for our readers, which is what you see here in the following photos using the Adamstand Pro II and several attachments. Read on and drool for yourself.

Currently, a major tool company that we all know is reviewing this patented product line for purchasing manufacturing and marketing rights for a possible infomercial marketing release. Of course, we'd love to tell you who that tool company is, but in today's wonderful legal world if we told you, we'd have to shoot you. Expand your mind just a bit more and understand Adamstand has a product that professionally transforms in this same fashion for you heavy hitters. For more information and to get in touch with Adamstand Workbenches' president, Joe Adams, you can reach him at www.usastand.com. Good luck in regaining or attaining your small corner in the garage.